Al-Qaeda-linked extremists have taken and continue to hold hostage about 200 Kurdish civilians, including women and children, using them as live shields in north-eastern Syria, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has stated.

Civilians remain hostage after Syrian Kurds clashed with Al-Qaeda
linked militants in the north-eastern Syrian towns of Tal Abyad
and Ras al-Ain, along the Syrian-Turkish border over the weekend.

"In these areas, there has long been confrontation
between the troops of the international extremists affiliated
with al-Qaeda and local Kurdish militias who stood up to protect
their homes from attacks by radical Islamists," Russia’s
Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on its
website.

“They started to kill innocent people by cutting off their
heads,” the statement read. “Kurds had to free Abu Musab
in exchange for an agreement to release hostages.”

Despite the Kurdish fighters agreed to release Abu Musab in
exchange for people, about 200 people are still in the hands of
extremists. The commander was freed as agreed.

The Kurdish gunmen have been fighting to expel al-Qaeda militants
from the northeastern province of Hassakeh over the past week,
with the battle significantly intensifying over the weekend.

The clashes between the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) and
the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jahbat al-Nusra erupted in the city of
Ras al-Ain in the northern province of Hasakeh on July 16, when
at least four militants were killed.

The Kurds issued a “victory message,” celebrating the
“liberation” of Ras al-Ain, claiming to hold control over the
entire city as well as the headquarters of the Islamist combatant
groups there.

On Saturday evening, the fighting spread to the city of Tal
Abyad.

"Moscow strongly condemns the atrocities of international
terrorists in northeastern Syria and the excesses and abuses
perpetrated by extremists against a peaceful Kurdish population
which is not involved in the ongoing political and military
conflict in Syria," the Ministry said.

The city of Ras al-Ain is home to some 50,000 people including a
mix of Kurds, Arabs, Christians, and Yezidis – a Kurdish
religious minority.

London-based RT contributor Afshin Rattansi says Western powers
supporting organizations like al-Qaeda-linked Jahbat al-Nusra are
to be blamed for the situation in northern Syria.
“There has been a discrimination of Kurds in that region, but now
we have a situation where the United States, Saudi Arabia, and
Britain are actively supporting al-Qaeda-linked organizations
that are ransacking and murdering women and children - certainly
over the past 48 hours,” he said. “All we are hearing from
London and Washington are talks about a no-fly zone and arming
the very people who are killing women and children there. And
from Turkey, certainly the Turkish right wing has brought ideas
of invading Syria from the north to kill more Kurdish
people.”

Rattansi says the UN Security Council (UNSC) should look closely
at the situation there.

“Russia and China should bring this up at the UNSC. Otherwise,
the prospect for these 200 hostages is pretty grim,” he said.